Pions in hot dense matter and their astrophysical implications

Bryce Fore and Sanjay Reddy
Phys. Rev. C 101, 035809 – Published 31 March 2020

Abstract

We study the role of pions in hot dense matter encountered in astrophysics. We find that strong interactions enhance the number density of negatively charged pions and that this enhancement can be calculated reliably for a relevant range of density and temperature by using the virial expansion. We assess the influence of pions and muons on the equation of state (EOS) and weak-interaction rates in hot dense matter. We find that thermal pions increase the proton fraction and soften the EOS. We also find that charged current weak reactions involving pions and muons ν¯μ+μπ and νμ+πμ make an important contribution to the opacity of muon neutrinos. This could influence the dynamics of core-collapse supernovae and neutron-star mergers. Finally, we note that pion-nucleon reactions can alter the evolution of the proton fraction when weak interactions are not in equilibrium.

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  • Received 20 November 2019
  • Accepted 6 March 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.101.035809

©2020 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Nuclear PhysicsGravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

Authors & Affiliations

Bryce Fore and Sanjay Reddy

  • Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA and Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA

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Issue

Vol. 101, Iss. 3 — March 2020

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